Disclosed is a radio controlled clock movement control system, including two stepper motors, two gearings, and a photo electronic control unit. The two stepper motors are operated independently each one driving a gearing, where the first gearing contains a second wheel, and the second gearing contains an hour wheel and a minute wheel. The photo electronic control unit contains a first photo detector, a second photo detector, and a light source. Multiple through holes are formed in succession over one sector near the rim of the second and minute wheels, which are moved in the direction of rotation over the photo detectors that undertakes to check the minute and second wheels for the zero alignment. Therefore, a radio controlled clock having the present clock movement control system can be self reset in a fast manner.
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1. A radio controlled clock movement control system, comprising:
a first stepper motor;
a second stepper; wherein the first and second stepper motors are operated independently;
a first gearing containing a second wheel which is driven by the first stepper motor, wherein the second wheel has two through holes formed in succession over one sector near the rim of the wheel;
a second gearing containing a minute wheel and an hour wheel, partially overlapping each other and rotating with different speeds, which are driven by the second stepper motor, wherein the minute wheel has four through holes formed in succession over one sector near the rim of the wheel, and the hour wheel has one through hole on the same side as the through holes on the minute wheel, and the diameter of the through hole on the hour wheel is greater than or equal to a through holes on the minute wheel;
a first photo detector being installed on one side to detect through holes on the second wheel, so that when one of the through holes of the second wheel is aligned over the first photo detector, a high voltage signal is output, otherwise a low voltage is normally maintained over the signal line; and
a second photo detector being installed on one side to detect through holes on the minute and hour wheels, so that when a through hole of the hour wheel and one of the through holes of the minute wheel are aligned over the second photo detector, a high voltage signal is output, otherwise al low voltage is normally maintained over the signal line.
2. The radio controlled clock movement control system as claimed in
3. The radio controlled clock movement control system as claimed in
4. The radio controlled clock movement control system as claimed in
5. The radio controlled clock movement control system as claimed in
6. The radio controlled clock movement control system as claimed in
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clock movement control system used on radio controlled clocks, and in particular to a new radio controlled clock movement control system that enables the synchronized adjustment of the hour, minute, and second wheels with high efficiency and self reset in a fast manner.
2. The Related Art
In conventional clocks, a mechanical movement is used to drive the hour, minute, and second wheels. A radio controlled clock, however, makes use of wireless transmission technology incorporating such as an RF signal receiving element, a signal processing element, and an automatic time correction element in the movement control circuit, so that the radio controlled clock can receive radio wave signals from a ground transmitter that gets the time from a standard time generator. Once the radio controlled clock has decoded the signals through the RF signal receiver, the clock uses that time information to synchronize the hour, minute and second hands in its own clock, so that the same clock time will appear on all radio controlled clocks receiving the same radio signals. Also, another function of the radio controlled clock is that it can be self-reset down to the seconds every hour on the hour, so there will be no time discrepancy at all on any one of the radio controlled clocks.
Referring to
Conventionally, the radio controlled clock movement module only has a single motor to drive the second wheel into rotation, which, through a linking gear, in turn drives the minute wheel, and, the later, further through another linking gear, causes the hour wheel to rotate in succession. If a time checking is initiated every hour on the hour, for example at one o'clock, the hour, minute, and second wheels first have to be self-reset. A photo-electronic control unit is used to determine whether the hour, minute, and second wheels are all zero reset. In the worst case scenario, the second wheel has to rotate 660 cycles to bring the hour, minute and second wheels back to respective zero positions, which is a time-consuming process. Therefore, the new generation of clock movement uses two motors and a photoelectronic control unit in the clock movement module, which performs the self-reset in two sections independent of each other, where the first motor to control the rotation of the second wheel, and the second motor is to control the rotation of the hour/minute wheels. This two-motor clock movement control has out performed the one-motor control model, but the time required for self-reset could be further improved if the operation of the motor is optimized.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a radio controlled clock movement control system that enables the synchronized adjustment of the hour, minute, and second wheels with high efficiency and the self-reset in a fast manner.
The secondary objective of the invention is to provide a radio controlled clock movement control system that is able to produce precision adjustment of the hour, minute, and second wheels, and to prevent vibration caused gearing alignment problems during a zero alignment process.
The proposed clock movement control system is composed of two stepper motors, two gearings, and a photo electronic control unit. The two stepper motors are operated independently, each driving one gearing. The first gearing has at least two reduction gears and a second wheel, and the second gearing includes a minute wheel, an hour wheel, and at least one reduction gear. Multiple through holes are formed in succession over a sector near the rim of the wheel, which are moved consecutively in the direction of the rotation over the alignment position. In the second gearing, the minute wheel and the hour wheel partially overlapping rotate with different speeds, where the minute wheel has multiple through holes formed in succession over a sector near the rim of the wheel, and the hour wheel has one through hole formed at a position under which all through holes on the minute wheel are to move in the direction of rotation, and the diameter of the through hole on the hour wheel shall be greater than or equal to the diameter of a through hole on the minute wheel. One of the two photo detectors in the photoelectronic control unit is installed at a position over which all through holes on the minute wheel are to pass in the direction of rotation, and another one is installed at another position over which all through holes on the second wheels are to pass in the direction of rotation.
The photo electronic control unit includes a light source, a first photo detector, and a second photo detector. These photo detectors are used to determine whether the through hole of the second or minute wheel is aligned over the photo detector, i.e. the alignment position, and then a high voltage is output by the photo detector to the clock movement module, otherwise a low voltage is normally maintained over the signal line, thus serving as a toggle switch.
The present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, which show, for purposes of illustration only, a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
Referring to
Once the clock movement module is activated, the second wheel 23 in the first gearing 22 starts to rotate, and the minute wheel 27 in the second gearing 26 is also driven into rotation, through which the hour wheel 28 is driven into action, so that the hour, minute and second wheels are able to rotate synchronously with different speeds.
Referring to
The photo electronic control unit is formed by a light source and two photo detectors (24, 29), which serve as two toggle switches. The first photo detector 24, as shown in
When a self-reset is requested, as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
On the other hand, the second wheel 23 is normally driven by the first stepper motor 21 in high speed, before the point t2, as shown in
The minute wheel 28 is normally driven by the second stepper motor 25 in high speed before the point t12, as shown in
These two stepper motors are equipped with a two-speed control. In the normal condition, a stepper motor is operated in high speed before the first through hole is encountered by a photo detector. Thereafter, the stepper motor is stepped down to low speed in preparation for the zero alignment. Finally, the stepper motor is stopped precisely over the zero alignment position. Therefore, through the motor speed control of the microcontroller 13, the operation of the two stepper motors (21, 25) can be optimized to attain higher efficiency in the synchronized adjustment of the hour, minute, and second wheels. Also, the use of such motor speed control can prevent vibration caused gearing alignment problems.
When assembling the clock movement module in a radio controlled clock, a mounting bracket 62 is used to facilitate the installation of the first and second photo detectors as shown in
The present invention is characterized in that the use of two independent stepper motors is able to improve the synchronized adjustment of the hour, minute and second wheels with high efficiency; and each stepper motor is built-in with a two-speed control to optimize the motor operation, so that the self-resetting can be finished in a fast manner and vibration caused gearing alignment problems can be minimized.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention which is intended to be defined by the appended claims.
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